Land Rent, Capital, Rate of Profit

Land Rent, Capital, Rate of Profit provides a critique of David Harvey's theory of land rent and his replacement of Marx's concept of absolute rent with class-monopoly rent.

The book argues that this shift inadequately addresses crucial theoretical and empirical problems in urban economic geography today. The alternative introduced here links land rent to fluctuations in profit rates rather than monopoly pricing.  Farahani seeks to resolve anomalies in Harvey's explanation by incorporating the concept of absolute rent and emphasizing long-term structural economic forces that determine its fluctuations. The book draws on an alternative interpretation of Marx's economic theory advanced by Anwar Shaikh in his theory of real competition.

ISBN: 9798903931996

Publication date: August 20, 2027

Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Introduction
Structural Analysis
Critiquing Harvey from a Marxist Perspective

Part 1 Capitalist Urbanization and the Centrality of Land Rent

1 Harvey and the Structural Analysis of Capitalist Urbanization
1.1 Pre-Harveyan Urban Analysis and Harvey’s Critique
1.2 Urbanization as Capitalist Accumulation
1.3 The Dual Theses: Capital Switching and Spatial Fix
1.4 Land Rent as a Linchpin in the Analysis of Urbanization
1.5 Gaps and Tensions in Harvey’s Theory
1.6 Summary

2 The Evolution of Rent Applications by Harveyan Geographers since the 1980s
2.1 Periodizing Rent Applications
2.2 Theoretical Challenges and Controversies over Rent Categories in Urban Contexts
2.3 Urban Applications of Rent Theory
2.4 An Unresolved Debate and an Incomplete Project

3 Two Models of Land Rent
3.1 Harvey’s Spatial Monopoly Model of Land Rent (SMLR)
3.2 The Turbulent Inter-sectoral Model of Land Rent (TILR)
3.3 Judging between the Two Models

Part 2 Empirical Comparisons of the Two Models

4 Harvey’s Empirical Evidence Revisited: Inter-sectoral Profitability and US Cities
4.1 Absolute Rent or Class-Monopoly Rent
4.2 Measuring Aggregate and Sectoral Rates of Return
4.3 Profit Rates on the Recent Investment and Capital Switching
4.4 From Macro to Micro

5 Swedish Municipal Site Leasehold: Capital Switching and Land Policy
5.1 Municipal Site Leasehold and Its Macroeconomic and Institutional Tensions
5.2 Capital Switching, Economic Crisis, and Land Rent
5.3 Final Remarks

6 Shortage of Affordable Housing in Malmö
6.1 Real Competition and Relative Prices
6.2 Housing Shortage in Malmö—Empirical Evidence
6.3 Implications of the TILR for Housing Shortage in Malmö
6.4 Concluding Remarks

7 The Decline of Iran’s First Public Housing Program
7.1 Iranian Capitalism, State, and Public Economy
7.2 Labor Relations and the Aggregate Rate of Profit
7.3 Financial System, Manufacturing Sector, Technology, and Geopolitical Conflicts
7.4 The Mehr Housing Program, an Overview
7.5 Inter-sectoral Analysis and Urban Land Rent in the Iranian Housing Sector

8 Spatial Inequality and Gentrification in Tehran
8.1 Housing and Spatial Inequality in Tehran
8.2 Social Demand, Profitability, and Land Rent

9 Concluding Remarks on Empirical Comparisons of the Two Models

Part 3 Theoretical Foundations of the Two Models

10 The SMLR, TILR, and Theories of Competition
10.1 Competition Theories and Economic Theories
10.2 Harvey and Theories of Competition
10.3 Competition Theories and Rent Theories
10.4 Harvey’s Argument against the Concept of Absolute Rent
10.5 Concluding Remarks

11 The Turbulent Inter-sectoral Model of Land Rent (TILR)
Summary and Conclusions
Appendix 1: Rent Categories: an Overview
1.1 Differential Rent
1.2 Absolute Rent
1.3 Monopoly Rent
1.4 Class-Monopoly Rent
Appendix 2: Data Sources
2.1 Data Sources Used for Chapter 4
2.2 Data Sources Used for Chapters 5 and 6
2.3 Data Sources Used for Chapters 7 and 8
References
Name Index
Subject Index